IBSteveC

The guy sounds like a dirt-bag. Everyone is right- Get an attorney . Scouting is not supposed to be like this, They of all people should be great to work for as they are in a people business. I would contact all the other folks who have worked for Mr Dirt Bag get them to attest to and agree with your claims. Then I would sue this Council silly. Everyone is also right when they say that Scouting has become a good-old boys club. Once you do this you will probably never be employed by them again. I think you will find that's the good news. Scouting is at its best at the volunteer unit level. Once you get past that point things change. It's very umfortunate. Go get that lawyer- don't look back- While this may be negative to you now you can help change Scouting into something better. We need to get rid of the good old boys club and move the organization forward. The professionals will not do it it is not in their interest to do so. If we volunteers want control of this program and have professionals that are employed by us and paid by us do what we want we cannot accept this kind of behavior.

In your intial writing you did not indicate if you personally saw all this happen. You also did not mention if you committee chairman was present or your Scoutmaster was present. Any adult witnessing this kind of action has a duty to stop it and report it. The Committee Chairman and Scoutmaster have a duty to deal with this if they are aware of the situation. The only special meeting that need occur is one where they report on the actions they have taken. That's why they get paid the big bucks ;-) . If there was truly abuse then your Scout Executive needs to be informed. Different Scout Executives and Councils respond differently to this kind of charge. Hopefully your Council will recognize that the Unit is acting responcibly and is dealing with an unacceptable incident that the unit does not want to have happen again. Even with the unit responding as it should I would encourage training for adults, adult leaders and Junior Leaders to review how to deal with this type of situation to insure it does not happen again. Also all youth members of the Troop should be informed as to behavior expectations of the unit. It sounds like some horseplay just got out of hand and the response of the adult leader was way out of hand. Why didn't someone step in prior to it getting to this point ? I suspect we might be missing some of the story here.

Years ago I served on an Eagle Board of Review. I learned prior to the BOR that this young man illegally parked his car every day and had an excessive amount of parking tickets. These tickets had not been dealt with at all according to reports. I could imagine the headlines reading Eagle Scout arrested fo having outstanding tickets. During his BOR I asked him to tell me the duties of a US citizen. He seemed to understand them or at least be able to verbalize what he thought I was after. I then asked him to go out to his car which he had driven to the BOR and bring in his parking tickets. ( He had over twenty) He was awarded his Eagle after paying off all the tickets and he also learned about how to legally park a car. The young man has done nothing wrong in Scouting by your story. He appearantly has not gotten into trouble. (yet) I think its time for a Scoutmaster's conference. You did not indicate how close he is to Eagle but I would tend to slow him down if I could.

I'm curious how did this come up? Did the Scout admit to this during a Scoutmaster conference? Did he get in trouble at someone's house? Was he arrested? If this is not happening on Scouting activities then how did you become aware of it? Next question is who is supplying him ? In most states that against the law. If you know this is going on don't you have a duty to inform someone to protect the youth ? While what he is doing is wrong- I'm kind of worried about you

I agree with the idea of the Scoutmaster and Committee Chairman meeting to discuss the direction of the Troop. Sounds like there are two different directions. You made mention of the Scoutmaster and one assistant chasing away committee members. Doesn't sound like much of a team to me. The committee chairman should be coordinating the Troop Leadership (Both Scoutmasters, Assistants and the Troop Committee ) down the same path together. If that is not happening then you need to get there quick. In your condition I would organize a nominating committee to review the needs of the unit and recruit the necessary help. I would make sure the Scoutmaster is on the same page with me. If he isn't than you need to find common ground or make radical changes. You may need to involve your unit commisioner and Scouting coordinator in this process. Good luck let us know how it goes.

I have to question where your SM is if you are having challenges. There is a chain of command in Scouting. It is there to use and as a protection for its leaders both youth and adult. If a youth member cannot resolve behavior problems of youth members then its time for the Scoutmaster to step in and deal with the problem. The first issue is program. If you are running a good program that interests the Scouts discipline problems will be limited. They will naturally want to pay attention. If your program is mediocre then that is your problem not discipline. If you have "problem scouts" and I have certainly seen a few after too many years as a Scoutmaster you need to deal with them through the chain. First Patrol Leaders trying to deal with them, troop guides, ASPL finally SPL . If the scouts cannot resolve the problem then the adults need to step in. A Scoutmaster's conference with the offender- If that does not work a Board of Review- If that doesn't work or if an offender is being totally out of control or a hazard to himself or others its time to send him home. If there are constant problems from a scout a meeting with the Scoutmaster and Committee Chairmanm and the Scout and his parents is the next step. Perhaps even a probation period. If that does not work then finally expulsion from the Troop. This last week we finally had to pull the plug on a scout who just wasn't getting the picture. The measure I used was this- His behavior had gotten to the point that it was having an adverse effect on other Scouts. He was affecting the program of the troop so negatively and so constantly that there was no longer any benefit of his presence. This determination belongs with adults not scouts. I think I heard an audible sigh of relief from the Troop Leaders Council when we reached this decision.

Council and District activities are meant to help supplement a units program- not replace it. I don't mean to sound disloyal to a Council or District but folks need to vote with their feet. In forty years of being in Scouting I have seen some great Council events and some poor Council events. I have always maintained that Council and District events should be great events to show units how things are properly done. Sometimes the only way to get the message to Council and District folks is to say either improve the event to the standards of the units or delete or replace the event so that Scouts will want to attend. Some times we as Scouters also need to encourage our Scouts to go to these events... a special reward helps to encourage Scouts to attend. In my Troop we have a special overnight for those who attend the Council Camporee. (this is called bribery) But should the Camporee be a poor event I would not hesitate to seriously review whether or not to attend the following year.